Banking for Beginners

This article introduces the complex subject of how central banking operates in America and in most nations. It is a subject few understand. However, in the years to come it will be more important that everyone understand this important area.

WHAT IS MONEY?

Money is the medium of exchange in our society and it is a storehouse of value as well. This means that when one person wants to buy something, they exchange the medium of money for that good or service. Then the other person takes the money and uses it to buy what they desire. In this way people easily obtain what they need. The older method of doing this was called barter, or direct exchange. Money involves split barter, in which the two people making the exchange do not need to directly exchange goods for goods or goods for services. They use an intermediary that we call money.

Any item can serve as money. Over the years, many things have been used as money, from tobacco leaves to conch shells. As time went on, however, it was found that the most convenient to carry around were gold and silver coins stamped with their value. For hundreds of years, such coins were the main type of money used around the world.

However, in the 1800s paper money appeared in greater quantity. The paper, of course, has little intrinsic value. However, it is light in weight and easy to recognize and exchange. An even newer form of paper money was the invention of the check, at around the same time. This is better than cash in that it allows people to buy even large items without carrying around a wad of cash. It is also more secure than carrying paper money because forging a check is a serious crime and not that easy to do.

In the past 30 or so years, people are preferring the new electronic money, credit and debit cards. These have the advantage that one does not have to write out the check and with electronic methods, the card can be checked almost instantly to make sure the funds are available. Credit cards in particular also allow one 30 days to pay, and offer one a loan if needed as well. It is almost too good to be true for many people, which is why so many have large credit card balances that they never even intend to pay off.

MANIPULATING THE MONEY

Money is like the blood in our bodies. When it is restricted, it is just like poor circulation to a part of the body. Impaired money circulation causes social diseases, depression and decay. This is the main reason there is so much poverty in the world. Note that it is not a lack of money, but a lack of circulation of money. Billions of dollars of foreign aid have been given to poor nations. But most ends up in the pockets of the rich, so it does not circulate to the masses. This is the problem with most foreign aid. In summary, money is definitely not evil any more than one would say that blood is evil. The problem is that money can be manipulated and its value destroyed.

How Money Can Be Manipulated. There are two main ways money is manipulated. The first is by restricting its supply. This is called deflation. It occurs when too many goods and services need to be exchanged and there is not enough medium of exchange to do it. What then happens is that money becomes very valuable in and of itself. People hoard the money they have and will not part with it. The price of goods and services declines and the value of money increases.

Though this is theoretically a possible scenario, it is very unlikely for several reasons. First, the governments of the world want the opposite, as we will explain. So they tend to try to keep the money supply large. Secondly, money can be created in many ways today, especially with credit cards and even checkbook money. So it is hard to really restrict its supply. There are other reasons as well.
The second type of manipulation is what we have today. It is to dilute the value of money by putting too much in the supply. This is like diluting milk by adding water to it, or putting water in your gas tank because you don’t have enough gasoline. It tends to ruin the original item, though it may do so slowly if you don’t add too much at a time.

This type of manipulation has been done for hundreds or even thousands of years. It is a trick of governments, of banks, and many others. It has one purpose. It steals from those who have money because it lessens the value of their money.

For example, in 1900, one dollar could buy about 100 times what it can buy today. An ice cream cone in 1900 cost about five cents. A house comparable to today’s house might have cost $5000.00, and so forth. Why is this so?

The reason is that more and more paper money have been printed and released into the nation. As this occurs, the existing money is worth less and less. This is because money is a commodity or storehouse of value. It is not only a medium of exchange. This is a critical concept to understand.

Any commodity to which one adds more and more to the quantity available will go down in value. It is no different than if every farmer in the nation decided to grow potatoes. There would be so many potatoes available that their value would decline. Farmers might give them away because they could not be sold. This means their value as become 0.

When money is manipulated by enlarging the supply, the value of goods goes up and the value of money goes down. In other words, your money buys less and less goods or services. Another way to say this is that things cost more.

This is called inflation, a key concept in this article. When it occurs slowly, it slowly robs everyone of the purchasing power of their money. This means it diminishes what they can buy with their money. It is like a hidden tax that governments and bankers love because so few understand what is happening to them.

This tax, however, hurts the poor people much, much more than the rich. This occurs because people with some wealth usually own some land, a house or other so-called tangible assets. These will tend to appreciate or increase in value along with inflation. Poor people often live in apartments or rent their house, so they do not have assets that will go up in value along with inflation.

Inflation is even more devastating if it occurs fast. This will hopefully never occur again. It destroyed Germany after World War I and led to the rise of Adolph Hitler, probably the most despicable leader in modern times. It so discouraged the people that they elected him on the promise that he would stop the inflation of the money. He did so, so they elected him dictator and the rest is history, as they say.

Rapid inflation of the money supply destroys nations because the prices change every day and money starts to go down in value until it will buy almost nothing. It can happen in months, as it did in Germany. It is really a loss of faith in the money. It is a great hardship on people and hopefully the reader will never have to live through this disaster. Fortunately, central banks do what they can to stop this process, but they do not really control events as much as they believe they can.

For more information about inflation, read the article entitled Inflation, The Hidden Tax. Helping you clearly understand the causes of inflation is one goal of this article. However, let us now turn to banking, the next section of this explanation.

WHAT IS BANKING?

Banking is that set of services having to do with financial matters. It is a critical function of any complex modern society. Banks do the following:

1) Safely store and account for people’s money

2) Offer loans to those who desire them, provided they meet the necessary criteria.

3) Offer investments, such as paying interest on savings accounts, money market accounts and much more.

4) Other financial-related business and personal services such as credit cards, notary and signature guarantee and others.

WHAT IS THE CENTRAL BANK?

In almost all nations, the government gives to one private bank the exclusive privilege and monopoly power to issue the nation’s money. This is called the central bank. In England, for instance, it is called The Bank of England. The name is deceptive, however, as the bank is privately controlled by a handful of banking investors.

Usually, the central bank is also given a monopoly on the deposits of the government treasury, such as tax revenues. Also, the central bank usually controls what is called the prime interest rate. This is the rate of interest that other banks pay to borrow money from the central bank, should they need it.

Other types of money are either outlawed outright or made secondary and hard to use. This is accomplished by passing legal tender laws. These laws specify which money will have legal status for the payment of government debts and taxes. For example, in America today, one must use Federal Reserve Notes for the payment of federal taxes. There are federal taxes on almost all items we purchase and on many services such as telephone and electricity service. Therefore, it is very hard to use another currency such as British pounds or other money to pay for things in America. This is how the government wants it, so they can control the supply of your money.

The central bank has other functions such as tracking counterfeiting, calculating the money supply and adjusting it, recalling worn bills and replacing them, and others too numerous to mention. This article, however, concentrates on the function of issuing the money.

WHY HAVE A CENTRAL BANK?

The correct answer is to control the banking system. Many economists argue that we must have a central authority to control all phases of banking. However, this is not true. America has fared very well in her history without a central bank, and indeed many of the founders of America realized that central banks enrich bankers and impoverish the people.

The other correct answer is that central banks provide fortunes for the banking elites at the expense of the people. Bankers have long known that to make money they must charge interest on loans. This is their livelihood. Many schemes have been worked out to charge interest, but none as lucrative and subtle as having a central bank.

CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT A CENTRAL BANK?

In reality, there is no need for a central bank. For example, from 1690 to 1764 America had its own colonial script, as it was called. Benjamin Franklin remarked concerning this system:

"In the colonies, we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay to anyone.”

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The British bankers and the king of England did not like the fact that American colonists were getting rich and they were getting nothing. They decided to destroy colonial money, which was subject to inflation, as is all money. They ordered their provincial governors to issue too much of it. Its value started to decline and, supposedly to stop the “abuse of the money”, the British government outlawed it in 1764. They forced the American colonists to use British currency. While it is a little known fact, this contributed greatly to the American Revolution. Here is another quote from Benjamin Franklin:

"The colonies would gladly have born the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the Colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction.”

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Thus the nation of America was, in fact, born amidst conflict over money. This is an important fact of history. Americans, in general, were wise to the bankers’ scheme and hated it.

OTHERS UNDERSTOOD BANKING AS WE NEED TO TODAY

Numerous other people, including the founders of America, have written about central banking. Here are a few very important quotes to read over and over until their meaning is clear to you. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, who also served as a president and a Secretary of State, wrote:

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks... will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers (founded)”

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“A private central bank issuing the public currency is a greater menace to the liberties of the people than a standing army. We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.”

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Another outspoken critic of the central bank was president James Madison. He wrote:

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance."

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Abraham Lincoln was another great man who understood banking quite well. He fought a war mainly with the bankers, believe it or not, to keep the United States in one piece. Slavery was not the main issue, as many historians now realize. In fact, machines had already been invented for processing cotton that made slavery less important.

However, when the bankers realized they could not control American banking they decided to destroy the nation by splitting it into two, weak, indebted nations. Fortunately, this ploy failed. If this sounds outrageous, read the following quotes of Otto Von Bismark very carefully. Von Bismark, the emperor of Germany, was one of the banking elites. He was unusually honest and candid in his assessment of the “American Problem” as he sometimes called it. The following was printed in The London Times shortly before the American Civil War:

“If that mischievous financial policy, which had its origin in the North American Republic, should become indurated (or established) down to a fixture, then the government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off its debts and without a debt, it will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous beyond precedent in the history of the civilized governments of the world. The brains and the wealth of all countries will go to North America. That Government must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe. They will not hesitate to plunge the whole of Christendom into wars and chaos in order that the earth should become their inheritance."

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Here is another quote attributed to Otto von Bismark. It was published in La Vieille France, No. 216, March 17-24, 1921, pp. 13-16:

“The division of the United States into federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial powers of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economic and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over Europe and the world. Of course, in the “inner circle” of finance, the voice of the Rothschilds prevailed. They saw an opportunity for prodigious booty if they could substitute two feeble democracies, burdened with debt to the financiers… in place of a vigorous Republic sufficient unto herself. Therefore, they sent their emissaries into the field to exploit the question of slavery and to drive a wedge between the two parts of the Union… The rupture between the North and the South became inevitable; the masters of European finance employed all their forces to bring it about and to turn it to their advantage.”

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Abraham Lincoln understood the banking business all too well. In a letter dated Novermber 21, 1864, shortly before his death, he wrote:

“The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than the monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption will follow. And the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth (of the nation) is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic destroyed.”

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HOW DO CREDIT AND DEBT MONEY SYSTEMS WORK?

Thus the battle has been between money that is created as a credit, and money created as a debt. Here is a basic explanation of how these two systems work and how they differ.

When a government needs money, it could issue credit money by just printing it and then using it to pay contractors and others for work they perform. There would be no interest due on the money they issue. This is how Colonial Script worked in the American colonies, for example. A few small British-oriented islands operate this way today.

In the case of debt money, when the government needs money, they sell bonds or notes. These have a maturity date and must be paid back with interest. Issuing debt does help keep the government from just borrowing excessively, but it has not stopped the American government and most others from overspending at times.

The main problems with debt money are:

1) Private bankers usually set up the system and get the interest on the money, and

2) More money must come out of the system than went in. The government issues a million dollars in bonds, for example, but must pay back one million plus the interest. This means the nation will always be more and more indebted - to private bankers in almost all instances.

With this introduction, now let us discuss the American central bank.

WHAT IS THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM?

This is the current American central bank. The name is quite deceptive. The Federal Reserve System is neither federal, nor is there a reserve and it is not really a system. It is a cartel or group of banks that operate together to control the American financial system.

A system is a group of independent parts that operate together. A cartel is an organization in which the dominant members of an industry get together to shut out the competition as well as they can. Other examples of cartels that operate in America include:

1) The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). These, along with a few smaller groups, control who teaches our children and what that is taught in public schools.

2) The American Medical Association (AMA), along with the Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Association (PMA) and the American Hospital Association (AHA). These groups, together with several smaller groups, control health care in America through licensing laws, hospital regulations, regulation of medical education, infiltration of the FDA and other tactics.

3) The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), tries to control the price and availability of oil worldwide. America is not a member of this group, but it influences our nation greatly and works closely with oil groups within America.

Along with the Federal Reserve, these cartels wield enormous power, electing presidents if they wish. They have even been known to kill anyone who opposes them.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE BANKING CARTEL?

Banking either helps everyone be financially healthier, or, like impure or diseased blood, banking makes everyone poorer. Central banks or a cartel of banks, as we have in America, are designed to make everyone poorer. They do this be creating inflation in an ongoing and subtle way. They slowly increase the money supply, which decreses the purchasing power of people’s money. This is why understanding the system is important.

America does not need a central bank, and many people know this. They understand the evils of the bank, yet they are either afraid to speak up or do not understand it well enough. This article, hopefully, will clarify why the United States and indeed all nations would be better off with a government banking authority to issue money that is not debt-based.

UNDERSTANDING INFLATION

Inflation, which is explained more is a horrible loss of people’s money without their having much of a clue as to what happened to it. All they see is that their money buys less and less.

It is a tax on the poor, much worse for the poor people because the wealthy are protected by owning tangible assets such as houses and land that appreciate in value. These really do not appreciate, but inflation makes the money buy less, so that it takes more money to buy a house, car or other item.

The goal of this short article is to connect the dots, so to speak, so that people understand why inflation occurs. This is the only way to stop it. It is not about government policies and interest rates. These are smokescreens. It is about a banking system designed to impoverish the people who can least afford it, while enriching the government and the bankers.

It's doomsday plus a few weeks. Say you need to bribe the border guards at the state line but they seem to have all the wristwatches and free range eggs they can use. Hah! There's nothing like a few good ol' silver coins to become their number one tourist, let this man through. Or your gas station's not accepting Visa and the ATMs have gone dark from sea to shining sea and you've got a hard to get reservation at a fallout-free retreat. Hah! Dazzle 'em with the sheen of silver my friend, fill 'er up and happy motoring to you.

Or you gotta do some emergency shopping but hackers insist your bank records have gone missing and your bank agrees and meanwhile Bernanke Bucks are sinking faster than a head-shot carp. Hah! With Junk Silver just step over to the VIP express aisle and take what you need, take two while you're at it and here, let me help you with that. Or you're down to your last few rounds and you've gotta hit the freedom trail like now, and there are a dozen shooting galleries between you and your little blue heaven but your ammo vendor ain't taking paper. Hah! With silver you can top off from his private stock, the nickel plated ones that chamber slick as butter, and y'all come back now.

All this is by way of saying silver is the common man's hedge against the consequences of well informed, highly educated stupidity. This time it's likely to manifest itself as a general repudiation of paper promises, including currency. Let's get to the plain facts. Junk Silver means silver coins with no collector premium for rarity. They're culls, valued only for their silver content, called melt value, not that anybody actually melts them. [Updated values here, second table down] Just as a guide, with silver at $29 to $30 per troy ounce, a silver dime goes for a bit over two bucks, so for any Junk Silver coin you can figure face value times twenty, plus a cup of cappuccino. For the moment.

Annoying data: there are 14.58 troy ounces per avoir pound, that would be the regular kitchen-type pound, a troy ounce being 480 grains, the avoir ounce being 437.5 grains. The grain is identical in both systems. Rule of thumb: the troy ounce is about 10% heavier than the avoir ounce, but the troy pound is only 12 troy ounces and therefore lighter than the avoir pound, which is 16 avoir ounces. Coin silver is 90% Silver, 10% copper. Finally, Indiana Jones is .812 Roy Chapman Andrews.

Dimes and halves are favored. For every ten ounces current wisdom says do five ounces in halves, five in dimes. You'll have more dimes than halves, five-to-one, natch. Quarters are somewhat less favored. Not for any actual, sensible, defensible reason. It's just the way it is. Could be the tyranny of even numbers. The silver dollar's place seems to have been taken by the one ounce silver eagle. It's too bad, the silver dollar is the embodiment of the ancient and original definition of a dollar, namely "three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain" of fine silver alloyed with copper to the tenth part. It's genuine Constitutional money. Get one and treasure it. And while you're doing so, reflect on today's paper dollar being equal to 1/29th of an ounce of silver, and how did that happen.

Oh, you do know that only dimes (originally dismes), quarters, halves and dollars (originally eagles) minted in 1964 or before are silver, don't you? Those made in 1965 and after are not Junk Silver, they're junk junk, they're money only because "they" say they are and people have to pretend to believe them. They're of no intrinsic value, or near enough, unless you need to shim a table leg.

Nickels dated 2010 and before are an alloy containing 25% nickel, currently valued at 6¢. They may be the small change of the future. Pennies dated 1982 and before contain 95% copper, they're going for around 2.5¢ at present. Now for the dreaded minutia. Nickels (originally half-dismes, silver, then debased) made from 1942 through 1945 are 35% silver, currently fetching about a buck and a half. Eisenhower collector grade silver dollars are 40% silver, the ones made for circulation are worth about 25¢. 1965 through 1970 Kennedy half dollars are 40% silver. Naturally there is even more minute minutia, there always is, but none of this is going to mean much in a post-cataclysm world so it isn't worth remembering unless you're planning to go into the metal separation trade, post-doomsday.

Only about 5% of all silver ever mined still remains, it gets consumed more or less irretrievably in many manufacturing processes. Consequently, "above ground" silver is actually more rare than gold, and by a lot. However, in-ground silver is generally estimated to be about 17 times that of gold, close to the price ratio of gold to silver over the centuries. However-however, silver tends to be found in close company with some bad stuff, notably mercury, making extraction and refining problematic. On the other-other hand, many a copper mine also yields silver. Incidentally, if the historic 1:16 ratio of gold to silver were to reappear, silver would be at $87 now or gold would be at $480. Guess which number gets the most mention.

Gold is handier if you're dealing in commerce by the truckload or buying large parcels of land, but silver is the coinage of everyday exchange and always has been. Even the Medieval penny was a silver coin, 240 to the Tower Pound, replaced in the 1600s by a copper version. It's just as well, the weight of the silver penny had been declining for a couple of centuries. Perhaps our pathetic penny is a fitting endpoint for this debasement, being copper plated zinc, the lowest of the low, down in the pot metal class, the sort of coin a defeated country would issue in the final phase of a war. Trolley tokens were classier. These things will corrode to nothing by internal galvanic action alone, and fittingly so.

The price for physical silver is alleged to be severely suppressed by selling multiple claims on it, at a ratio said to be about 100 to 1, then driving down the exchange price with market manipulations for even these dubious instruments. The various exchange quotations are said to set the price of silver when in fact they set the price for more or less irredeemable promises that pretty much nobody believes in the first place. If one purpose of any market is price discovery, silver exchanges have that much less claim to the name. They deal in ETFs and ETNs and CEFs, today's so-called paper silver, abstract and fiendishly intricate deriviatives they choose to call products, conjured with but a condescending nod to the metal itself. People get rich doing this, and they'll stay rich until that ahah moment when the worth of their paper departs dramatically and inversely to that of the physical stuff. Such is the dominant narrative among the silver monetarists.

There was a time when paper silver was unquestionably on the up and up. Until 1965, US currency consisted largely of silver certificates, i.e., bearer instruments redeemable in silver from Treasury's member banks. This service on behalf of the customer and the Treasury was a central condition of their charter. Redeemed silver certificates were withdrawn from circulation and returned to the Treasury to be destroyed. It's why they carried serial numbers. Federal reserve notes also carry serial numbers, perhaps its a quality control device to facilitate recalls of defective product. More likely it's a play for the awe of authority found chiefly among the plebeian, their target customer.

Proponents of silver as money have a novel way of looking at things. They say the value of silver is not that which is measured but that which measures, it's the wind gauge not the wind, because silver is not a claim on something else, it's not a contract, there is no counterparty, it merely is. It pays no interest but neither does it depend on a future event to bring its value into being. Silver resolves debt rather than passing it on. In other words, silver is money real and true. It reveals the value of the dollar, not the other way 'round. The idea is a sort of Einstein mind experiment, how things look different when riding a beam of light rather than watching it go by. It's a worthwhile mental exercise of a quiet evening.

For the activist Austrian and Marxist alike, Max Keiser's and Mike Krieger's campaign to "bring down JP Morgan" by purchasing silver may provide some malevolent warmth, but be warned, the convolutions can induce involuntary weeping. According to the MKs, JP Morgan has a 3.x billion ounce short position in silver, worse, it's a naked short in that they don't actually own 3.x billion ounces. JPM's purpose is to suppress silver prices in order to prop up fiat currencies, which they do own. Therefore buying silver forces JP Morgan to cover their short position. Which they can't. Bailouts begin, fiat withers, feedback loop ensues, JPM's collapse follows, the People triumph. After examining their flow chart and finding an action box labeled: 5% OF THE EARTH'S POPULATION BUYS ONE OUNCE, Remus is going long JP Morgan. And that's before getting to: THE PEOPLE TRIUMPH.

Anyway, there's a downside to having physical silver. Counterfeits, for one. It's a small but nagging problem. They're very good and getting better, often faking silver eagles or their international equivalents, but more commonly it's bogus rare coins struck from genuine coin silver. Counterfeiting Junk Silver presents the additional problems of simulating random wear and patina, diminishing the already smaller profit, but perhaps economy of scale will change this. Keep an eye.

Storage is another. A few thousand dollars in melt value is no particular problem, it's not substantially bigger than a grapefruit, but have much more and thoughts turn to bank safekeeping. Oops, scams abound here as well, say where the bank suddenly needs thirty days to find your silver, then they can't because drat! they've leased it out, not that they'll tell you outright, perhaps also having pledged it elsewhere several times over, so they compensate you with federal reserve notes in lieu of what was formerly your hedge against federal reserve notes. They can do this, you see, it's in the 2-point type on page 90 of your contract under "To Serve You Better". It's a rule in life, 'for your convenience' means it's the nasty stuff.

Then there's confiscation, as during the March 1933 Bank Holiday when safety deposit boxes coast to coast were relieved of their gold coins by federal agents. As for silver coins, until recently the unassailable bulwark was the old standby: it won't/can't happen here. Today a similar fate for silver is easier to see than not, after all, only the rich hoard bullion—is yes, no? Think strategic metal or money-laundering or currency stabilization and imagine what your patriotic obligation might be, perforce. Sanctions would complicate transactions to be sure, then again, serious free enterprise has always been illegal, that's why it's called the underground economy or the black market, &c. But be of good cheer, fine points of commerce will be the least of your problems in a financial cataclysm. As Butch Cassidy said, Swim?! What are you, crazy? The fall will probably kill you.

What to do, what to do. The truly wary opt for physical possession with all of its drawbacks. US coins are preferred by a wide margin, they're instantly recognized, their integrity unquestioned—remember, they were minted back in America's "American Era". Discretion is advised when sourcing. It's easy in metropolitan areas, face to face transactions are the norm and divulging your identity is not required with cash payment. As with other things survivalist, anonymity becomes problematic elsewhere, and developing trusted sources takes time.

As for counterfeits, some believe it important to acquire the means of detection, a Fisch device notably, although an electronic postage scale and digital calipers will suffice. Absent inspection equipment, the default test is simple and pretty reliable: drop them onto a hard surface and listen for the characteristic ring. Keeping the "look" of authentic Junk Silver is recommended, cleaning them aggressively is probably a bad idea. Some soak the seriously gunky ones in a mild solution of dishwashing soap to restore some visual appeal. It's not a matter of lowering collector value, there isn't any by definition. For those who require forgiveness in all things, the better hotels used to do this, it factored into their star rating.

Being your own banker isn't difficult, just unfamiliar. The most popular way, and one of the more effective, is the classic box in the cellar, behind a loose cinder block or somesuch, perhaps near plumbing to spoof metal detectors. There are even published instructions on how to install a run of false plumbing with an internal compartment designed for easy but not obvious access. Such things are fun to contemplate but have a care, silver weighs up, it can quickly be like putting a handle on a Steinway and calling it portable.

Back yard burials and secret wall compartments are popular, with the added allure of having been favored by small time bootleggers during the unpleasantness of the '20s. Some folks have small stashes all over the place, including their get-me-home bags, their bugout bags and even in a buried vault along their bugout route, tucked in with the freeze-dried hash browns and fire starters. Then there's the problem of acquaintences who know just enough to be suspicious. One dodge used on the aggressively inquisitive is to reveal a disappointingly small clutch of coins in a not very good hiding place. What you lose in gravitas you gain in security, it's a decoy of course, designed to mislead thieves.

There's not much we can do about a nearby supernova or a volcano the size of Wyoming, but for less than extinction-level threats it's more prudent to have a stash than to not have one. The average person isn't expert enough to appraise a diamond or a sketch by Michelangelo, or even know if they're genuine, but silver coins are a known, certified and accepted quantity. And it's not like they go bad in storage, silver stays what it is forever, or at least longer than you need worry about, whatever happens to paper currency or bonds or ETF shares or even governments. Self-serving utility is important, but perhaps as important is honesty between ourselves, it's the enduring counterplay for dishonesty at the top. Bottom line, silver is honest.

Behold! I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work... Isaiah 54:16

What I think this means. This is just my opinion. Some time in the next 2 months there will be a run on banks at the upper levels with large depositors moving their cash to other currencies. The US will devalue and banks will go into default. There will be NO government bailout. The banks will confiscated all deposited money (ty patriot act) and issue certificates of ownership to all accounts.

So now is a goo time to have some 'Junk Silver' coins on hand if you have not done this yet

Again these are my personal opinions based on knowledge I have. The above link is the 1st sign I have seen of this movement to China that has been made public by the IMF. The announcement is a a BIG deal. The PTB always make an announcement before they screw with us.

“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

“When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor–your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?

“Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions–and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

“But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made–before it can be looted or mooched–made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.’

“To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss–the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery–that you must offer them values, not wounds–that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade–with reason, not force, as their final arbiter–it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability–and the degree of a man’s productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

“But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality–the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

“Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

“Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth–the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

“Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men’s vices or men’s stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment’s or a penny’s worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you’ll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

“Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

“Or did you say it’s the love of money that’s the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It’s the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money–and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

“Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another–their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

“But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich–will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt–and of his life, as he deserves.

“Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

“Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

“Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, ‘Account overdrawn.’

“When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, ‘Who is destroying the world? You are.

“You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it’s crumbling around you, while you’re damning its life-blood–money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men’s history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves–slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody’s mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer, Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers–as industrialists.

“To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money–and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man’s mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being–the self-made man–the American industrialist.

“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose–because it contains all the others–the fact that they were the people who created the phrase ‘to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity–to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words ‘to make money’ hold the essence of human morality.

“Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters’ continents. Now the looters’ credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide– as, I think, he will.

“Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out."

Clearly Rand. The issue isn't the money. The issue is the manipulation of it to benefit a few people. Rand was right about what the liberal side said. But she missed the boat for actual economic analysis.

While I support her ideals and try to live by them. I don't support her underlying belief that it is possible to control much of what happens in dark money that we don't know about. I am not a conspiracy theory person and my look at economics over and over tells me there is much going on that we don't see.

What most people do is shrugged and say they can't know or think they aren't smart enough. If something about ANY money market looks weird or off.... it is so trust your instincts. The press doesn't find out about osteoporosis the back room deals.
.. I don't know how to phrase this with out sounding like a conspiracy nut job...
But there is a lot going on in currency markets that we don't get told by the media till weeks later and months later. NO ONE talks about BASIL III. And the roll out for it is in stages till 2018. This is huge money control reform in the USA. But no one talks about it

I personaly believe that there is much that we will never find out about that is going on in the financial world. To have it become common public knowledge to soon would undermine their efforts of ill. Just a gut feeling, and I have come to trust that feeling more than the head..

How would your ancestors look upon your life and deed's??
Pro Libertate

A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it... Proverbs 22:3

If my buddy @enloopious likes it, then I do by default. No exceptions. I wish he would drop by again. We go way back to the days of Rant @Mindgrinder remembers.

For any who want a Cliff-Note copy:
The IMF is a crime syndicate which launders money from "governments" to black-ops programs. The agencies we commonly refer to as "government" are actually agencies belonging to the IMF, as law of record will clearly show (so there's no theory involved here). The IRS is a privately owned collection agency for the IMF. The privately owned banking cartel (Federal Reserve) is essentially a crucible of its own making, and it has never been audited, and never will. Most folks will claim "we need to return to the gold standard!", without recognizing this is precisely how sneaky and pervasive private interests gain control of a monetary system in the first place. The term "artificial scarcity" doesn't even factor in to the mind of a traditional theorist, who firmly believes a tangible asset equates with wealth. No, you just have a very heavy chunk of metal in your hand. It's "value" is absolutely irrelevant when we factor in bureaucrats making laws to kill you or throw you in prison for owning it (especially when you try to barter with it). We can barter with shiny rocks, or with a "tally stick" as the English did long ago, maybe seashells or cow dung...it doesn't matter if "government" controls the scene. Finally, the very best we ever did as a nation, was with the Greenback currency. Yes, it was FIAT. It was also lawfully authorized by Congress and entirely debt-free. This also means "Constitutional currency", like for the first time EVER (if you're having trouble). But, you're also wondering, "why did it fail?" --at the time, the European bankers knew how dangerous this currency really was to their agenda. They wasted no time, pulling every string, and devoted themselves completely to debasing it. They started massive counterfeiting rings, and went through a great deal of effort to gain political support to abolish it. It took quite a few years and help of the Civil War, not to mention killing Lincoln to keep the National Banking Act in force. Many years later, after the people were convinced to once again accept a gold standard, the Greenbacks were removed from circulation --still debt-free.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. "-- J. Krishnamurti“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” -- George Orwell

I first read Ayn Rand in high school, her books were passed around my senior year, along with kurt Vonnegut and Aldous Huxley. I received a weird education at a catholic boarding school. It seems they were preparing us for what is happening today.

I have no mortgage, credit cards (other that an amex, which is not a "credit card" ) and my definition of an asset is not traditional one. Credit wise I am considered a "ghost". My credit score would be higher but I refuse to use credit. I give them, the powers that be, very little. They will not use the fruits of my labor to enslave me. I live below my means and will continue to do so, consumerism is for fools and the under educated.

This is one of the best threads I have read in the year plus I have been a monkey. Thank you

@Broker "IMF is a crime syndicate which launders money from "governments" to black-ops programs" that is a broad statement, did you post links somewhere? I get they do marginal things and I would like to do more, did i miss something you posted?

FYI, IMF and the USA negotiated something this last week that leaves the USA as the world reserve currency for at least another year. The announcement said that the Chinese Yuan wont be considered as a reserve currency until October 2016. Makes me wonder what we gave away.

There is some truly bad stuff heading our way. maybe I should take out a loan on my 401k and buy more silver and property before those get "hair cuts" in the name of fairness and wealth redistribution.